Chapter 528:

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Allison’s brows drew together. A furious phone call, a summons to his office for a screaming match, those she had expected. A personal visit to her territory was something else.

“Let him in.”

Baker walked in, his face a grim, stony mask. The volcanic rage from the morning was gone, replaced by tense, guarded caution. In his eyes, she saw something she had never seen before: fear.

He didn’t waste time on pleasantries. He strode to her coffee table, opened his briefcase, and slapped a leather-bound folder onto the glass.

𝘕𝖾𝘸 с𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦r𝘴 е𝘃𝘦rу 𝗐e𝘦𝘬 o𝗻 𝗴а𝘭𝘯o𝘷е𝗹ѕ.𝗰o𝘮

“What’s this?” she asked, her voice cool.

“A truce,” Baker said, his voice raspy. “I will issue a public statement clarifying this morning’s misunderstanding. Your full authority as Executive Vice President will be restored, along with your original office and staff.”

Allison watched him, unreadable, waiting.

“In return,” Baker continued, a flicker of humiliation crossing his face, “all investigations initiated by the Compliance Department will cease immediately. You will turn over any and all files you have accessed.”

It clicked into place. He was terrified. He didn’t know what she had found, or what she was looking for, but the possibility alone was enough to make him fold. He was trying to buy her silence with the very power he had tried to strip from her hours earlier.

She picked up the folder. She didn’t open it.

While he watched, eyes wide with disbelief, she calmly tore the thick document in half, then in half again.

“My authority,” she said, her voice as cold and sharp as the glass table between them, “is not yours to ‘restore.'”

She dropped the shredded pieces into a nearby wastebasket.

“And as for the investigation, the game is just getting started.”

The sight of his shredded proposal lying in her trash broke through Baker’s composure. The fear in his eyes was consumed by a tidal wave of impotent rage.

“You arrogant little bitch!” he roared, slamming his hand on the coffee table so hard the glass shuddered. He lunged to his feet, pointing a trembling finger. “Who do you think you are? You think because you have Adam Kensington in your bed you can burn down this family?”

Allison didn’t flinch. She remained seated, looking up at him with chilling calm. “I don’t need anyone in my bed to do what’s right. I’m just taking back what was stolen.”

That phrase, what was stolen, struck a nerve. It was too close to the secret he had buried for two decades. A flicker of raw panic crossed his face.

He lashed out. “What was stolen? Everything you have, you have because of me. This name, this apartment, the clothes on your back. It was all given to you by the Montgomery family. Without me, you’d be nothing. Nobody.”

A sad, bitter smile touched Allison’s lips. “You’re wrong, Baker. Without you, my parents would still be alive. And I would have had everything.”

The words were a perfectly aimed dagger, striking him in the black heart of his guilt. His face went white. The anger collapsed into a desperate, snarling threat.

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